Turkish Journal of Botany
Abstract
Many Pinuxylon W.Gothan 1905 (formerly described as Lesbosoxylon Süss & Velitzelos 2010) fossil woods were identified from different parts of Türkiye. After five species had been described from Lesbos Island and one new species from Eastern Anatolia, more recent studies showed that this fossil-genus comprises more species and had a wider range in the Early Miocene through the Aegean Islands and Anatolia. The purpose of the present study is to summarize the state-of-the-art of the fossil-species of this genus from the Early Miocene of Türkiye. The thin sections housed in the fossil collections of the Department of Forest Botany, Faculty of Forestry, Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa were used in the analyses. One new fossil-species of Pinuxylon with pinoid type cross-field pits in markedly different sizes including very large and small pits was described as Pinuxylon anatolica Akkemik & Mantzouka sp. nov. Furthermore, Pinuxylon diversiradiatum (Süss & Velitzelos, 2010) Mantzouka & Akkemik, 2022 and Pinuxylon ventricosuradiatum (Süss & Velitzelos, 2010) Mantzouka & Akkemik, 2022 found in the same geological unit are reported for the first time in Türkiye. As to the other Early Miocene pine species, we proposed that Lesbosoxylon kemaliyensis Akkemik & Mantzouka should be transferred to Pinuxylon kemaliyensis (Akkemik & Mantzouka 2020) Akkemik & Mantzouka 2024 as the result of this study. As a conclusion, the fossil-genus Pinuxylon had a wide distribution throughout the Aegean basin and Anatolia with a total of seven species. The modern five species of Pinus L. in Türkiye are different from the fossil Miocene species except Pinus pinea L., and cover about 12 million hectares through Türkiye. We suggest that pine trees were the main conifer species in terms of area covered through the Cenozoic of Türkiye.
DOI
10.55730/1300-008X.2841
Keywords
new species, conifer, Lesbosoxylon, Galatian Volcanic Province, Pinuxylon anatolica, early Miocene
First Page
52
Last Page
63
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
AKKEMİK, ÜNAL and MANTZOUKA, DIMITRA
(2025)
"A review of the Early Miocene Pinuxylon species of Türkiye with a new species,"
Turkish Journal of Botany: Vol. 49:
No.
1, Article 6.
https://doi.org/10.55730/1300-008X.2841
Available at:
https://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/botany/vol49/iss1/6
